Coin Show Exhibiting and Judging

[retiredkper]

Have any of you here exhibited at a coin show or judged exhibits? I was at the Cental States Numismatic Society show this week in Milwaukee and saw a stunning array of high quality exhibits. At this point I must admit that I am an ANA Certified Judge and an occasional exhibitor. As I see it there are different types of judges. Some are very critical and others like myself tend to be more generous. Some put more weight on presentation and others on basic content. Most of the time there are at least three judges per catagory. After the judging is over and the grading sheets are compaired the scores should be fairly close to each other for each exhibit. There are times however when one of the three scores is obviously way out of line, usually in the negative direction. When this happens it is usually a judge docking the exhibit for missing information. The few times I have seen this was when exhibitors compared score sheets and each time the information was there in the exhibit! The judge either didnot read all the text in the exhibit or forgot it was there. Yes this has also happened to me. What did I do? Next time around I went into the noncompetitive catagory. Doing it your way and not subjecting yourself to the judgement of others can be very liberating.

[thedeadpoint]

Wow. I had no idea there was so much drama in the exhibits.

[retiredkper]

Wow. I had no idea there was so much drama in the exhibits.

Depending on who you talk with the drama sometimes reaches near life and death levels.. One of my greatest numismatic guilt trips resulted from my judging; when after it was all over I found that I screwed up and cost an exhibitor a well deserved award. Other times I know of exhibitors who carried grudges for years sometimes over very trivial issues in my opinion. That is why I like to see noncompetitive exhibits. Sharing information should be fun without all the ulcers and anguish. As an exhibitor I get more kicks out of watching people study my exhibits from a distance than anything else. The only thing that really ticks me off is when I think a judge does not read an exhibit and then makes comments about missing content which was there but not read by the judge. Any how there are many differing philosophies about judging and exhibiting and I was just curious to see if any one here would like to share theirs.

[thedeadpoint]

Several questions:

 

1) What are the exhibits you've done in the past? Which were your favorite? Your least favorite?

 

2) Which exhibits that you've seen are you favorite?

 

3) Will the Brewers keep Prince Fielder?

[retiredkper]

Several questions:

 

1) What are the exhibits you've done in the past? Which were your favorite? Your least favorite?

 

2) Which exhibits that you've seen are you favorite?

 

3) Will the Brewers keep Prince Fielder?

You ask tough questions of a guy with a weak memory. I try to exhibit things that no one has seen before. I can remember displays on the Illinois Distinguished Service Medal, the Drake Hotel Robbery medal, Wisconsin Military Medals, West German Comem. 5 mark coins, Imperial German Military medals, various military medal groups of WWII American veterans and their stories and most recently a display on Milwaukee city job titles on badges. Most people don't known that almost any city employee could carry a badge in the good old days not just police and firemen.

Favorite exhibits that I have seen? I have seen so many I honestly don't have one. One how ever is the most memorable and that was a recent one where a fellow exhibited the Canadian small silver 5 cent coins which are nicnamed fish scales. Besides presenting a complete set of the coins he had a three dimensional fish form that he mounted hundreds of the little coins on! He did such a good job of it that at first glance I thought it was a real fish.

For your 3rd question I have to be honest; I know who the Brewers are and I know I have heard the name Fielder before. I assume he must be a member of that team. Please forgive me but I lost interest in professional base ball when the Braves announced that they were going to leave Milwaukee which was the year before they went to Atlanta. Judging from your avitar I would guess that you are a White Sox's fan anyway right?

[Art]

My only involvement with exhibits is studying and enjoying them. I know that there's a great deal at stake in some of the competitions and folks get really excited about the scoring and judging. I've never been comfortable judging others' work.

[thedeadpoint]

Judging from your avitar I would guess that you are a White Sox's fan anyway right?

 

Thanks for answering the Qs about the exhibits. I'm tempted to poll everyone else about some memorable exhibits.

[mmarotta]

I, too, am an ANA judge, certified for Literature. I have judged for MSNS and CSNS and exhibited at ANA and MSNS conventions. As an exhibitor, the ANA has been fine so far, but only because I am so low on the totem pole. At MSNS I stopped exhibiting because I felt that the fix was in before the exhibits were placed. The last time, I just exhibited non-competitive to display a theme and an idea ... and I still had a problem. Nominally, every MSNS exhibitor gets something for showing up, at the least a certificate. Supposedly, all non-competitive placements get a silver ounce. I did not get mine because the judge said he set it down and now it's gone and I need to see the Committee about it. So, that's the last time I will exhibit at MSNS.

 

I agree that the process is supposed to be one of consensus, where the three judges come to a common opinion. But as the one with the lowest scores, I must say that the other two are way too easy because they know the entrants and do not want to give low scores to their pals.

 

Myself, as an exhibitor, I got great criticism from Joe Boling, the ANA's chief judge. He was on target, very helpful, kind and considerate. In fact, once at an MSNS convention, a dealer reached to his back stock and handed me an item and said, "Joe Boling told me to offer this to you." He remembered what I needed. That was swell. Even on the bourse floor, he was very helpful, showing me what details he was looking at or looking for and why and so on. You don't get that from everyone. So, my probllems such as they were were on the personal level.

 

You cannot get away from that. Numismatics is a closed community where everyone knows everyone. Once you get on someone's bad side, it is hard to overcome the resistance, and that applies to Exhibits.

 

The rewards are measurable. First place is a 1/4 ounce of gold; second is 1/10 oz gold; third is one oz silver. Scoring of exhibits tends to be very close. You get good at this, or else you don't do it. So a few points either way is a few hundred dollars of reward, even if you don't care about first place versus second versus third.

 

Anyway, that's why I go for Non-Competitive. If you have something to share, share it and let that be the reward.

(Writing, however, is a diifferent matter (ahem).)